July 12, 2010
MORE LEADERSHIP TIPS
From
www.Better-Leadership.com
Get Your "But"ectomy
SITUATION:
You are incrementally improving your
communications skills, through higher awareness of what you hear
yourself say, as well as learning a few tips here and there. Here's a
great one, and if you already know it, here's your challenge to
reviewing and using it more often.
TRY THIS:
When delivering feedback to
someone, include the good stuff without taking it back. In other words,
don't conditionalize the compliment by tagging on a "but ..."
Doing this undermines anything productive or nice that was in the
statement. Simply stop yourself before stating the "but" and leave the
good part of the statement as a stand alone.
You can pause for a moment, then continue with the rest of your
feedback, even if it was negative or corrective. Letting that part
stand alone keeps it from interfering with the "goodness" of the
original statement.
Example:
Before
Karen,
you did all that online
research quickly and found so much evidence to support our cause, but
several areas are missing the source details that we need for stating
the case.
After
Karen, you did all that online research
quickly and found so much evidence to support our
cause. Several areas are missing the source details
that we need for stating the case.
VOILA! You have stated the same message without degrading Karen's work or letting her feel like it was about what she did not do, rather than the accomplishment.
OTHER NEWS
Skirt Studies: The Online Course is coming!